


Believe

by Smutmaker_heartbreaker



Category: Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 19:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11191380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smutmaker_heartbreaker/pseuds/Smutmaker_heartbreaker
Summary: Steve wasn’t sure when he stopped believing in the goodness of human hearts. Maybe he’d never believed in it. Maybe he’d always known that even though he wanted to make the world a better place, humanity as a whole didn’t deserve it.Continuation of the Veld scene.





	Believe

Steve wasn’t sure when he stopped believing in the goodness of human hearts. Maybe he’d never believed in it. Maybe he’d always known that even though he wanted to make the world a better place, humanity as a whole didn’t deserve it.

A faint, flickering light from the fireplace lit up the room at the inn. Diana’s head rested on his chest, their legs entangled, her body more or less draped over his. A part of him marveled over the surrealism of it all—over how bulletproof skin could be so soft, over how an Amazon powerful enough to bring down entire buildings could fit so perfectly on top of him, over how he’d been able to experience what he’d just experienced without being, well, _dead—_ but the rest of him was too content with holding her to really care.

Outside the window, people were still celebrating. He smiled to himself as he listened to the inhabitants of Veld sing and laugh together, but his happiness was bittersweet. This wouldn’t last. No peace did. Wars ended, and then, inevitably, they started again. The massacres he’d read about in the history books, the slaughters he’d heard about on the radio, the mud-covered corpses of teenage boys he’d witnessed with his own eyes on the battlefield—such a widespread cruelty couldn’t be caused by a single person. Not even a god. Humans fought. Humans killed. Killing a single person—deity, whatever he was—wouldn’t change that.

But Diana didn’t know that. She _believed_ —and god, he wished she was right. He wished she would find her Ares, and that when she finished her mission the war to end all wars would actually be over. That without the god of war, there would be worldwide peace. He wished she was right, both for humanity’s sake and for hers. She saw the goodness in people. She saw the goodness of the world. If she were to see what he saw, what he’d seen over and over these past years…

Her body may be invulnerable, but the world could still destroy her heart.

He wasn’t aware he’d tightened his grip around her until she raised her head and gave him a sleepy, questioning look.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“Nothing.” He kissed the top of her head. “Nothing at all.” And, right there and then, nothing was. Even if the peace was only local and most likely temporary, it was still peace. They were here, together and more or less unharmed. Times like these, that was as good as it got.  

A joyful melody, sung painfully out of tune, echoed against the buildings outside the inn. Diana’s face lit up in a smile, an expression both innocent and ageless.

“Do you think they’ll make breakfast in the morning?” she asked.

He let out a short laugh. “Most likely, yes.”

“And read the newspaper? And go to work?” Her eyes shone with excitement—excitement and pride.

“Maybe not for a while, but… yeah.” Her words made his chest feel heavy, but they still made him smile. “Maybe one day they will.”

He didn’t believe in the goodness of human hearts. Looking back at his life, he could barely even believe in the goodness of his own. He wanted to, though. He desperately wanted to. Not just for the sake of human kind, but for hers.


End file.
